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Officials from the Valenti Modified Racing Series announced Tuesday night that they have suspended teenage championship contender Sammy Rameau for the season’s final event on Saturday at the Sunoco World Series at Thompson Speedway.
A member of Rameau’s team allegedly physically attacked a Valenti Modified Racing Series official after Sunday’s rain shortened series event at Lee USA Speedway.
Rameau finished 20th in the event at Lee after an early wreck.
Rameau was also docked all points earned by his team in 2018. He was not listed in the driver point standings released Tuesday night.
According to the penalty report Rameau’s team was cited for breaking the “Fighting” rule (page 25, paragraph 2.32 of the rulebook): “Fighting and/or physicality of any kind will not be tolerated.”
His team was also cited for breaking the member code of conduct rule (page 25, paragraph 2.31 of the rulebook): “All MRS Members shall not make (or cause to be made) a public statement and/or communicates, criticizes, ridicules or otherwise disparages any MRS Members (race teams, officials, host track, etc.) Section B. (2) Aggressive behavior, language, destruction of personal property and/or physicality towards any MRS Officials, the visiting host track and their employees or any race team members of any kind, by MRS individual members will not be tolerated at any time and will be subject to fines and suspension.”
Rameau’s father/team owner was suspended indefinitely by series officials and fined $2,500.
Rameau announced Tuesday night through Facebook that he will make his Whelen Modified Tour debut in Sunday’s season ending Sunoco World Series 150 in a car previously owned by Dave Sapienza.
Woody Pitkat, who parted ways with former team owner Dan Stebbins before Sunday’s event, was making his first Valenti Modified Racing Series start for team owner Stan Mertz.
Pitkat was declared the winner at Lee. The event was originally supposed to include twin 50-lap features. In the end it was one rain shortened 30-lap feature.
Rameau was leading the standings going into Sunday’s event at Lee, with an 18 point advantage over reigning series champion Anthony Nocella. Woody Pitkat was third in the standings going into the event, 21 points behind Rameau.
Mechanical issues in practice forced Nocella to sit out Sunday’s race.
Pitkat’s victory launched him into the series standings lead going into the finale event Saturday at Thompson.
Pitkat said he will be driving a Todd Patnode owned car at Thompson Saturday.
Mike Willis Jr., who came into Sunday’s event fourth in the standings, moved to second with a second place finish at Lee.
Willis sits 15 points behind Pitkat. Nocella sits 47 points behind Pitkat and will be mathematically eliminated from championship contention when Pitkat takes the green flag to start the event at Thompson.
Decreased lap count? Counting caution laps? Docking points? This type of stuff sounds a lot like “make the rules as you go”.
Just when you thought the VMRS would make a entire season without looking foolish here comes LEE and all those changes in race procedure AS THE RACE GOES ON, shame I KNOW weather impacts things But what happened makes the VMRS look foolish
Good luck Woody!
Making adjustments based on the fickleness of mother nature that considers the fans, teams, travel and all the rest is one thing.
Physically attacking an official is quite another. For starters it’s a crime.
No series or track can afford to gloss over team members and especially a senior physically confronting an official. It’s anarchy and the shows a complete breakdown in respect.
Looks like they brought the hammer down big time in what has to be viewed as a message sending enforcement of the rules with far reaching consequences.
You might not like it or agree with it but how do you not respect it?
Are you joking this kid is the hottest thing in the Northeast I hope they consider the tour someone that owns a Competitive (6) car needs to fill the void Ed Partridge I’m talking to you out with Ryan in with Sammy
Unfortunately the kids father is going to ruin any chance that Sammy has to get a good ride. The father is a liability.
GEEZ!!! Tempers, tempers. Tough break for the Rameau team who worked hard to get to where they were. In my opinion, the “not so well” organized race at Lee shouldn’t even be counted and let the points race be settled at the World Series but as the world turns, folks get frustrated, emotions heat up and situations like this happen. Voice your opinion, write a letter, but man!, no reason to go “fist to cuffs” with the officials. A heck of a race season flush down the pipes. On the other hand, making the best out of awkward situation, congrats to Woody for being at the right place at the right time.
Rules are rules, that’s why they call them rules and that is the way it goes. The way I read this is dad is the team owner so the action is taken against him as he is the responsible party, not clear who the individual was though.
Forget about the 6 car, Partridge has made it clear that RP is the driver, part time or whatever the arrangement is.
The MRS itself should be suspended by Thompson from the world series for actions detrimental to the sport
I obviously do not think the 6ma team acted appropriately at the conclusion of the “race.” But with that being said, the MRS cost them the championship. All the time and money spent by the team in order to race and promote the MRS at every event just went out the window. I am just a 4 cyl guy who runs at the same track every week and that alone takes a massive sacrifice to accomplish. I cannot even fathom the level of rage the 6ma team felt at the end of a long season to have the rug pulled out from under them. To call 19 laps at Lee a complete race is an absolute farce. I do not approve of the physical altercation but if I was put in the same circumstance there is no way I can say I wouldn’t do the exact same thing… I am very interested to see where they go from here. I can’t imagine spending one more dime or spending one more minute of my time on a series that absolutely positively 100% cost me a championship. I don’t agree with they did what they needed to do to get all the competitors paid. Teams are always prepared to lose $ at the track but what happened to the 6ma I doubt they could have possibly prepared for dealing with.
Goonery and thuggish behavior like this makes racing look bad.
My suggestion would be for the VMRS to pull a points scenario from the dirt track series. Give everyone “show up points” for running the heats. That way the teams that were there would get points, and the championship would not have been so drastically affected.
This reminded me of the ACT at NHMS a while back, the 50 lap race that got called after I think about 17 laps. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good and Woody was a little of both, being in the right place at the right time!
The VMRS didn’t cost anyone the championship. The bad actor on the team did.
What does it say about a series points championship when a driver can miss 2 events and still be in 3rd place… How about missing 5 events and being 8th in points… At least they posted updated standings. Usually have to wait a couple weeks for those
Just have to run more events and you are the champion!!!!
VMRS is at best a loosely organized open series. Very few cars run the entire schedule.
Just to be clear Nocella failed to launch at both Stafford and Lee.
That 47 points he’s short on now is something that his team was responsible for.
Meanwhile old Woody is calling on friends and maybe adversaries for all i know. Folks willing to help him muddle through a couple races to finish the season. How about some accolades for that kind of effort and the series a lot of people seem to think it’s worth doing it in.
The conditions were awful, being this late no time to schedule another date. Should they have pulled the plug and than left all the competitors without getting any payout? The track and series tried to do what they thought best.
But, they cost themselves! The kid just had to ride around and the Championship was all but sealed. Than he get himself caught up with 22 & 33! Than he still can’t keep it together and gets involved BAD with 93 & 0! The team would been lucky to get that car back out for the next 40. Than to completely lose their s#*t in pits, sadly they did themselves in.
Have to agree with Doug. The VMS acted accordingly. The thug tat took swings at an official is 100% to blame. It sucks for the driver, but drivers are responsible for the actions of their team. Good Luck to Woody this weekend, another Championship would be nice.
I’m not trying to defend the actions of the 6MA crew; what happened was completely wrong.
My point was the VMRS could have had a more reasonable solution than inexplicably counting caution laps to reach halfway, which I don’t believe they have ever done before. And if the track’s event order was different, the first VMRS race could have easily been run and completed instead of the street stocks. If there was no second race due to weather, the first one would qualify as being official for points and $$. Better than 19 laps and a wet 11 lap parade!! Had there been a little better planning, the fans and teams would have had a Modified race and the battle that took place probably never would have happened.
Doug while I do agree that attacking a OFFICIAL physically is wrong at every level you seem to not put any BLAME on the VMRS, now this series has a long history of BOGUS rules and officiating in past yrs and to change race procedures like they did is almost as wrong as hitting someone, any sport has to not look like a FIX is in and even with weather u cant just change things like they did as the race goes on, plus MONDAY was a holiday, I know not JULY 4th but things could have been done better!!!
Wmass01013,
You should read the comment from Scott Tapley left under this story link on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Fan Page on Facebook. The town restrictions faced by management at Lee are very strict and they don’t have the ability to just decide they’re going to run an event on any certain day without some town approval. I don’t think Monday was a very easy option for them to look at based on those town regulations.
The hottest thing in the North East? You have got to be kidding me. The only time I ever heard of this kid was when he wrecked everyone at the start of the TC 13 lap shootout at the North South Shootout.
Thanx Shawn, I know they had to get the curfew changed to 10 Pm on Sunday to keep racing, didn’t know options were limited BUT I still think wrong to make those PROCEDURE changes on the fly especially when so close to deciding the Champion
Just like all of the end of the year shows. The tracks want all of these divisions to pad the back gate. They need to work a little harder to get the races in as advertised. No they can’t change the weather. They can alter the schedule. It was not a surprise when the rain came in. The VMRS was basically the headline division. The TTOMS did the same basic thing twice year.
Yeah, the town of Lee only gives the track “X” amount of hours from the time the engines first fire to complete the race programs. It has been like that forever.
The MRS really had a great season going too. Strong car counts at a lot of events. Talented field of drivers. Now it seems tainted. I like Woody but it feels an asterisk next to the championship if he wins.
August 25, 2007 Monadnock Speedway
Fenton Family Modified Racing Series 100
Rob Goodenough was the winner in a race that only went 42 laps due to rain
Don’t believe everything you read. There was never any contact between anyone. It was all verbal.
Had the opportunity to go to Dirt Week in Oswego. Unbelievable the car count and the attendance through out the week at all the tracks. Racing was an A+; Granted racing is pretty much a religion up there, it would be nice to see something like that around here. Smooth operation.
If what Dan f posted, that the attack was verbal and not physical, then the MRS went way overboard. If the attack was verbal, then the kid shouldn’t be expelled, and they should have docked him 20 points or so. The severity of the penalty makes me think it got physical. Sucks for the driver, but he’s responsible for his crew.
No contact at all. Just a bench of yelling and foul language. If there was any contact don’t you think someone would have left in cuffs???? The snowflakes who say words hurt have infiltrated our sport people, and a bunch of em are running the MRS.
Oh brother, there you have it. Never mind that the penalties were extremely harsh. An entire season erased from the points standings. Then there was the $2500 fine and suspension. Have any of you ever seen such a harsh total cost for behavior from a member of a team? But Dan says fake news. All just boys being boys shouting things back and forth with potty mouths. And apparently caused some doubt by at least one other in the thread.
Or you can believe the guy with some journalistic chops doing the reporting until some other fact based verified information comes out.